Durban, South Africa — Born in 1963 in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) is preparing for its own voluntary demise on Monday in the South African port city of Durban, 39 years after it came into being.
The central focus and essence of the OAU was the liberation of Africa and the end of apartheid. Now, say Africas current leaders, it is time for the continent to move on.
On Tuesday, the OAU will cease to be. It will be replaced by the new African Union, the AU. The AU is supposed to shift gears and steer the continent towards greater economic growth, development and self-sufficiency, as well as better governance, accountability, responsibility and conflict resolution.
The AU will also be home to the New Partnership for Africas Development, Nepad, its pivotal development blueprint. Nepad has again been the subject of intense discussion in Durban in the build-up to the historic transition from the OAU to a new continental organisation.
By Sunday night, at least 33 African heads of state and delegation leaders - out of a total of 53 in line to join the AU - had arrived in Durban on the eve of the closing OAU session. Ministers assembled earlier in the week to begin their deliberations to agree a draft agenda to be submitted to the presidents.
New leaders, new ideals, new objectives and a new way for Africa. That is the mantra of the AU. But how difficult will it be for the new body to achieve its stated aims of moving the continent forward?
Optimists point to a fundamental difference in the charter of the OAU and the founding principles of the AU; that the outgoing organization had no authority to intervene in the internal conflicts in Africa, which threatened to tear the continent apart. Critics fear nothing will change.
But the African Union will be armed with a Peace and Security Council, which will have precisely this mandate and the authority to act on continental crises. There is also talk of the creation of a rapid intervention force to be on standby to back up the councils recommendations.
The former veteran OAU secretary-general, Tanzanian Salim Ahmed Salim tried and signally failed to convince OAU member-states to establish such an African army.
Now it may become a reality and help to contain the proliferation of wars - currently standing at more than 20 - that blight Africa and give rise to its reputation of a continent not prepared to resolve its own problems.
Peer review is another old concept that has been dusted off, refreshed and made new for the consideration of African leaders. Of course, they will be the very ones in the dock if they stray from what the AU hopes will become acceptable norms and standards of governance on the continent. But most presidents are busy nodding their heads in agreement that they will bow to - potentially - critical assessment by their fellow leaders.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo - one of the key architects of Nepad and chairman of its steering committee - told journalists Sunday, "We have agreed on peer review. No one was backing out of it. No dissent, not a single dissent."
But Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade - another Nepad co-founder -- expressed doubts about how workable peer review would be, stressing that it had been till now a virtually taboo zone among African leaders and had failed to deliver. "I find that what has been agreed is not realistic. We are trying to do practically the impossible."
Wade asked: "With what right do you criticize or interfere in my internal affairs? How do you think I can tell a president in a country that his election or his treatment of the press was not regular for this or that region? I do not believe in this."
It was not clear whether the Senegalese leader was highlighting the difficulties of implementing the peer review system, or disagreeing with it in principle.
Ghanas president of the past 18 months, John Agyekum Kufuor, a comparative 'new boy' at the OAU-AU, was more upbeat about new efforts to curb errant African leaders.
Talking to a group of foreign journalists, including allAfrica.com on Sunday night, Kufuor said: "We are now institutionalizing the peer review mechanism which, hopefully, would bring about standards of conduct among the nations, which would help to tackle the issues of conflicts and waywardness among members."
And, in a sign of change - or willingness to accept change - the OAU has softened its uncompromising stance on Madagascar, that it would recognize neither the former president Didier Ratsiraka or his replacement Marc Ravalomanana.
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In an eleventh hour modification of the decision announced on Friday by the South African foreign minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, who is chairing the OAU council of ministers, a recommendation was agreed to allow the heads of state to review the position on Madagascar.
This followed an all night OAU ministerial session in Durban ending in the early hours on Sunday and preceded by the departure from Madagascar on Friday by Ratsiraka. Observers conclude that he has gone into permanent exile.
African diplomats told journalists the OAU had taken into account "fast moving developments" in Madagascar.
The organisation has tried and failed to mediate in the seven-month political - and increasingly violent - crisis in Madagascar.
Analysts in Durban wryly remark that, perhaps as a last hurrah, the OAU is trying to jettison its reputation for being slow to react and always a "little late for the party", just before Africa gathers to bury the organization on Monday.
In its place, they hope, when the African Union is born on Tuesday it will show its intentions by being pro-active, always ahead of the game and proving that it can really lead and represent the continent.
